Other Methods to Screen a Tenant

If you are a long-time landlord, you know that excellent tenants are the key to reliable profit. A lot of landlords have endured the penalties whenever they fail to see red flags or cut the slack of asking a lot of questions to prospective tenants.

A reliable tenant screening software can help a lot. You can also look for property management near Garden Grove to help you screen potential tenants. However, there are other methods you can use, here are some of them:

Do Not Provide Leases Without a Signed and Completed Rental Application

Someone who often fails to completely finish an application is hiding something. You might require that application to show that the tenant is lying if you’ve got to perform an eviction in the future. You open other tenants and yourself up to risk if you enable them to turn in an unfinished application. Also, when it comes to eviction, you lose vital evidence.

Perform a Background Check on Every Adult

You need to perform a background check on both roommates and spouses. You have to be wary of attempts to replace the background check information of a relative in place of the real applicant.

Call Previous Landlords

Keep in mind that the current landlord might speak of them highly just to eliminate them. The current landlord has every reason to provide an excellent reference just to get rid of that tenant if the tenant is producing complaints, is a severe late payer, or is trashing the place. Because of this, you should contact the last two landlords if possible. This will help you acquire a less biased reference.

Examine Social Media Profiles

You should take your time to search their account if you can find the applicant on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. Do they affiliate with any gangs or hate groups? Are there references to being imprisoned or committing a crime? Do their details match their residence history and employment? You should know how to spot red flags.

Confirm Sources of Income

It was extremely hard to produce a fake pay stub many years ago. Today, since almost every person has a photo editing software, a scanner, and a computer, they can easily fake a pay stub. Any person can produce a completely fake pay stub just to deceive you.

Because of this, you’ve got to think about asking for 3 months of bank statements to lower the risk of being swindled by a fake pay stub.

Create Written Eligibility Criteria

You’ve got to turn down an applicant from time to time as a landlord. That applicant might often be a member of a protected class under state or federal housing regulations. You’re going to want to be able to present them a family-status-neutral, disability-neutral, gender-neutral, and race-neutral criteria written in advance. Aside from that, you will obviously want to be able to present how the accuser did not meet these ideal legal tenant screening criteria. This will help you avoid any lawsuits in the future.